Light in the Darkness
by Icha
Summary: A snapshot after the events of the Blackest Night, particularly Blackest Night Wonder Woman #2, with reference to the Final Crisis.


_**Light in the Darkness**_

_A Batman/Wonder Woman story_

_By Icha_

_Rated K_

_Disclaimer: All characters belong to DC Comics, no copyright infringement intended. Special thanks to Hepburn for the amazing beta. A snapshot after the events of the Blackest Night, particularly Blackest Night Wonder Woman #2, with reference to the Final Crisis._

-xxx-

"You should take a rest."

Star Sapphire Wonder Woman flicked a strand of her damp hair as she stretched her tired body out. "Later, after this wreckage is sorted out," gesturing to the messy wreckage in front of her, she replied to Carol Ferris, her temporary 'boss' in Star Sapphire Corps who looked back at her intently before saying, "Suit yourself," and handed her a bottle of coke. Diana took it and drank it slowly.

"You did a great job as a Star Sapphire," Carol blurted out of the blue. "You showed us what true love looks like. You're sure you don't want to stay?"

Smiling, Diana shook her head. "As much as I love pink, I still think red is my color," she said, inviting a short laughter from Carol. "Shall I return the ring to you after this?"

"Oh, the ring knows when your time of service is up. It will detach itself from you on its own." She floated to the sky. "I need to see Hal now, but I'll see you later, yeah? Oh, and your sister Donna was looking for you."

Diana nodded, finished her coke and returned to her cleaning up the last of the wreckage for the time being. She and some other heroes had been in charge of cleaning up Manhattan, and it took them hours for it to reach the rather clean state it was in now. Usually, Diana would use her own Wonder Woman strength for cleaning up, but having a violet ring with her proved to be quite useful as well. Besides, she would return it soon enough anyway, might as well use it for the last time for something non-violent.

Diana was compressing her last package of garbage with her violet ring when she felt a presence approaching her. "I'll be done in a second, Donna," she greeted her sister, while she crunched the garbage into the smallest ball possible, and carefully dumped it in a green storage John Stewart had made for them (to be transported later to the Moon, poor satellite…).

Finishing that, she turned to face Donna Troy in her traditional red and gold uniform. Her sister passed her a big plastic cup of iced lemon tea. "Thought that my old red uniform would be better to cheer me up this time," her sister explained her costume, and then gestured towards the iced lemon tea. "Thought you'd like it," she added as she sipped her own tea.

"Thanks," Diana sipped it gratefully (she preferred non-frizzy drinks like this rather than coke actually, but she didn't want to hurt Carol's feeling). She gestured to Donna to sit down on the still deserted pavement in East End New York, where they could see their colleagues occasionally flying high and low in the sky above – usually carrying a big package of wreckage. The two sisters sat like that in silence for a few minutes until Diana asked, "How's Cassie?"

"Fine," Donna finished her lemon tea. "She's with Superboy now, doing damage control." After a moment of hesitation, she added, "Boy, I'm glad I didn't damage her doing my rampage as a Black Lantern…"

"Tell me about it," Diana studied the remains of her tea absentmindedly before adding, "At least you didn't touch her. In my case, I destroyed her heart." She ignored Donna's obvious question marks that floated above her head. "I also chopped you in two. Clean."

"Diana…"

"And Mother. I forgot what I did to her, but it was so bad as well…"

"Di, none of us were even touched by your Black Lantern self," Donna was quick to remind her sister. "I just don't understand how –"

Diana smiled ruefully. Ignoring Donna, she finished her lemon tea and then explained, "Aphrodite. It was a virtual reality she created to contain me and my rampage of terror as a Black Lantern. I don't know if she called the images of you, Cassie and Mother into the virtual reality to help me, or if my subconscious chose you all… but obviously it didn't work. I slaughtered you all… though inside I was crying so painfully."

Swallowing hard, Donna took several minutes to register this. When she finally spoke, her voice bore nothing but understanding. "Well, that was actually to be expect…we are your family, after all. We should be the one to bring you back home, so to speak. And you didn't hurt anyone really –"

"Other than Mera," added Diana matter-of-factly. "I bumped into her briefly before we defeated the whole Black Lantern Corps. She was okay, and she forgave me, thank Athena, but how about you? How are you coping with all these?"

Diana spent a few minutes listening to Donna telling her story as a Black Troy, but deep in the recess of her heart, something unsettling started to re-emerge. Something she'd rather ignore, and was able to because of the whole fighting the last few days. Yet, with their current victory and recuperating time, that thought poked in here and there again, flirting with her, disturbing her. Seducing her.

"…I still don't understand how Aphrodite finally pulled you out of the darkness?" Diana's consciousness returned to Donna's story. "I mean, none of us in your virtual reality were able to stop you… so how did you break free? Did Aphrodite herself appear there?"

Diana shook her head; her mind flew back to the dark hour when she thought she had lost herself and all she loved. "No, it wasn't her. It was…"

"_Stop it, Diana. Now."_

'_No!' Her heart screamed. "Make me."_

"_This isn't you, Princess."_

'_No! This isn't real', said her heart. 'This isn't possible.' Her dark self was persistent. "IS now."_

_She choked him, he choked her back. 'Not Bruce…'_

_She looked through his opaque lenses, directly into his eyes. '…Bruce is dead…'_

And then the kiss. The Kiss she secretly longed for since years ago. And the violet ray, the violet ring that saved her.

Or, was it true that the violet ring saved her? Did its presence trigger her imagination of Bruce? Of kissing Bruce? Hence pulling her out of the darkness? Or was her memory of Bruce the one actually triggered the violet ring to her? Diana's head started to swirl dizzily as she tried to comprehend her experience.

"Who saved you then?" Donna's curiosity was palpable.

Returning to reality, Diana looked into her sister's baby blue eyes and decided to tell the truth. The simple version of it, at least. "Batman."

Donna blinked. "Dick?"

"No, not Dick."

"Bruce?!" This time, in receiving her sister's confirmation, those baby blue eyes truly tripled in size. "How?!"

_That's also my question, _Diana wondered in her heart. "Perhaps because I mourned his death. Or that I haven't mourned his death the way I should."

Donna's curiosity morphed into empathy. "Oh honey… oh dear sister… c'mere…" She scoped her older sister and shushed her in her embrace, caressing her damp hair. "If you want to cry, I have the time and the shoulder, you know…"

Diana let her sister comfort her for a while before muttering in her embrace. "He's not dead."

"It was also hard for me to accept Bobby's death, Diana. It was what turned me into a Black Lantern. So it's okay. It's normal."

"No, you don't understand," suddenly Diana freed herself from her sister's embrace. "I know it now. Bruce is not dead. He is still alive."

Donna shook her head. "Darling, I –"

"Tim Drake. I need to speak to Red Robin now, Donna. Where is he?" Diana reached for her communicator. "He should be around town, right?"

It only took Donna a fraction of a second to decide. "I'll talk to him now, Diana, and see if we can see him soon." She took out her communicator to reach for Red Robin. Before her gadget reached him, she took time to turn to her sister and said with a little smile, "He will be pleased to find an ally in you, Diana."

Diana nodded absentmindedly. As Donna spoke to Tim, she turned to face the blue sky of New York, facing the direction of Gotham. Unconsciously, Diana touched her own lips.

No, Batman did not appear in her subconscious because she mourned Bruce, or that she could not accept Bruce's death. Yes, she did mourn him of course, and yes she found it hard to accept his death. But it wasn't the reason for his appearance in Aphrodite's virtual reality.

_It was something else,_ Diana pondered as she slowly caressed her own lips, and suddenly withdrew her fingers as she felt a jolt of electricity when the image of Batman and her kissing flashed into her mind.

It was something else, and she knew not what to call it. But she was certain of two things now. First, it was possible that Batman was still alive after all. She didn't know how, she just knew that he was.

Secondly, many people kept commenting on their friendship so far. How she kept tolerating and trusting the annoying Bats despite his constant snippy attitude towards her. They said that she shouldn't even bother showering him with her light and hope, for no light or hope could possible penetrate such darkness. He was, to many, an emotionless black hole.

But now, seeing how the image (and kiss) with Bruce Wayne the Batman pulled her out of the darkness, Diana wondered. Could it be that Bruce was not the darkness itself? Is it possible that Bruce was actually the light in the darkness that saved her? Is it possible that the light within her was saved by the light within him, albeit wrapped in a dark costume?

_And rather unrelated to these questions,_ she pondered in her heart, _is it possible that I truly love him, and he loves me back?_

-xxx-

_**Iraqi desert, 9,000 years ago**_

Bruce woke up screaming, drenched in sweat. It took his old friend some time to bring him back to reality – whatever the horrible reality he had to face now. The old man gestured to ask if he was okay. No, he shook his head, and tried to gesture 'dream'.

"Ah," said the old man who then gave Bruce another furry blanket to cover his body; it was still pitch-black outside. He then gestured the younger man to go back to sleep, as his frail old hands put some more firewood before he returned to his own sleep.

Bruce scratched his bearded chin. He hadn't shaved for weeks. Couldn't shave for weeks, in fact. He studied the old man by the fire for quite some time before he decided to go back to sleep. But he couldn't, so he just fiddled with the fire pit and replayed the dream once more.

Diana, the Wonder Woman, turned into a dark sentient and was killing her sisters and mother. He stepped in, as the Batman. They fought. They locked gaze. She loosened her grip, he did too. And – not sure who started first – they kissed.

The deepest, most intimate kiss he even ever tasted so far, making him missing the Princess so. But she was so faraway, out of reach, out of time. Even as he kissed her in his dream, he realized that. And suddenly, a violet ray hit them, and Diana was pulled into a place bathed with bright violet light. And he was pushed back into the darkness.

That was why he screamed. He wanted that light again. He wanted her back in his arms.

But he could not.

But of course he could not.

-END?-

_Author's Note:_

_Nothing, but… thank you Greg Rucka for making me a happy Batwondy fan, and Nicola Scott for such beautiful arts! Special thanks to DaisyJane and Lady Isis for the tips about Bruce's whereabouts post Final Crisis. I don't know the exact time Bruce was transported back in time, but I take it after the last ice age (which ended about 10,000 years ago)._


End file.
